Wtewael, Joachim Antonisz. (Kreis-Werkstatt/Circle-Studio)

Description:

Utrecht 1566 - 1638
79 x 63 cm
Ariadne on Naxos. Oil/canvas, relined.
Lit.: Bosquet, Jacques; Mannerist Painting, The Art of Europe from 1520 to 1620; Munich 1985, pp. 162., fig. 9; Grzimek, Günther; The Dawn of the Modern Age. Handbook of European Mannerist Paintings; Catalogue of the Grzimek Collection, p. 32 ff., cat. ill. no. 1.
In his catalogue, Günter Grzimek lists Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638) as a possible artist alongside Joachim Wtewael. However, a comparison with the painting ‘Lot and His Daughters’ from the H.C. Maasdijk Collection (The Hague), in which the ‘identical’ figure is depicted as one of Lot’s daughters, rules out van Haarlem. A similar depiction of an androgynous, youthful nude figure can be found in numerous paintings by Wtewael, such as in the figure of Sebastian in the ‘Martyrdom of St Sebastian’, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas (RKD-Images 219798), or in the figure of Andromeda, drawing ‘Perseus and Andromeda’, Albertina Graphic Collection, Vienna. (RKD-Images 21384). It is therefore evident that figure types from the repertoire of Wtewael’s workshop have been incorporated into a wide variety of compositions and iconographic themes. Whether our ‘Ariadne on Naxos’ (who might have coined the title-it could just as easily be a slumbering Venus or Danae? Or perhaps one of Lot’s daughters) was intended as a stand-alone figure or as a model for a larger composition remains unclear. In its assessment of the painting “Loth and…” from the Maasdijk Collection, now in the Central Museum Utrecht, as “Naar Wtewael” (18th century?), although it is unclear whether this “Naar” (after) refers to a specific painting by Wtewael or to his style in general (RKD-Images 46577). In the catalogue: Old Master Paintings. An illustrated summary catalogue. (Rijksdienst voor Beeldende Kunst) 1992, the painting “Loth and…” is still attributed to Joachim Wtewael.